Weighing in at 5.2% ABV, Alice Porter hides a huge complexity behind her modest strength. Roasty and smooth with fruity, rich coffee character. Alice Porter takes a sudden twist in an unexpected direction; a blend of hops that add a light, balancing citrusy twist and a subtle spiciness. Alice Porter is the first of our 2105 seasonal brews.

Beer: Reviews & Ratings

Picked this up at a great little beer store in Arlon, Belgium, Miorge Mihoublon. Dark brown, nearly black pour with a huge three finger tan head with great retention and lacing. Very balanced nose with an equal amount of roast and hoppiness. Hints of cocoa, roasty malts, leather, subtle citrusy hops, and a touch of smoke. The taste is just as balanced with the cocoa getting more intense along with hints of toffee, citrus hops, coffee, subtle licorice, and brown bread. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with medium carbonation and a subtle sweetness on the finish. Overall, a solid, well balanced and flavorful Porter. Would definitely revisit. (654 characters)

Look: Black and opaque - more like a stout than a porter. A good couple of inches of tan head which settles down to a thin foam cap and a ring round the inside edge of the glass. No lacing to speak of.

Smell: Another one of those beers that smells oddly metallic on first pour - let it stand and warm up a bit and it starts to show its true colours - plenty of dark, roasted malt and sugar flavours with toffee and dark fruits vying for attention too.

Taste: Has a very 'dark' taste - again with the malts and dark fruits but there's a big undercurrent of dark chocolate in there too. All in all it's a fairly complex flavour profile with no single flavour dominating. This serves to make the whole taste very dynamic - quite literally there's a different flavour coming through with each mouthful. Despite this, it works.

Feel: Pretty smooth and full feel - although it's described as a porter this feels more like a decent oatmeal or coffee stout. Not a bad thing, by any means, and very drinkable too.

Overall: Love 'em or loathe 'em, you can't deny that Brewdog make some pretty good beer. This one is no exception - more 'stout' than 'porter', at least in my opinion, this was apparently revived by popular demand and it's not hard to see why. Plenty of flavours to keep things interesting and a mighty fine example of a porter in general. One of Brewdog's better efforts. (1,421 characters)

On tap at the Dundee BrewDog pub. Opaque with mahogany highlights and a very good head. Aroma: complex mix of chocolate, dark fruits, toffee, and baked bread, among other things. The flavor is just as good and complex. It's also well balanced so that the numerous flavors intermix with fine dynamics. All 5.2% ABV is evident in the finish when a hint of brandy appears. Medium body with medium carbonation.

330 ml bottle poured into a tulip. Very dark brown to black brew with a half-finger of persistent khaki brown creamy bubbles on top.

Aroma is chalky, slightly smoky, sweet ... Recalls burnt sugar and molasses, wood char, vanilla, woody hops, a hint of strawberry. On the palate this brew is reasonably sweet, the burnt sugar notes stealing the show. There is a pleasingly woody/floral hop bitterness on the back end. I'm thinking carob, toasted hazelnuts and almonds, black licorice candy, creamed coffee, some singed grain (although this is far less roasted that many other porters I've sampled). Seems drinkable and mellow for a Baltic, although the bitterness does build with time. A subtle earthiness and root beer-like brown spice also emerge.

Reasonably smooth and creamy. Low key carbonation ... Not flat, but close to it. Finishes with some earthy hops, roasted coffee malts. Lingering red licorice notes. I'm happy, although I think Brew Dog does a few other styles better than this one. Could benefit from more body and an increased depth of flavor. Still, well-crafted and worth one's time. (1,104 characters)

Pours a dark, murky brown with a slight red tinge. Transparent throughout, with fairly lacklustre head of big beige bubbles. Lace is alright, but not great. Looks decent, though.

Smells alright, a bit nutty and spicy with nutmeg, carob and a touch of marzipan. Quite on the sweet side with only an afterthought of roastiness. But it's OK.

Taste is a bit boozier, an underlying palate of roastiness and a mild touch of black pepper. Majority of palate is sweet and quite nutty, with some almond paste, chestnut and more carob. Aftertaste adds a touch of spice which is a bit more colour to add to a decent but otherwise uninspiring palate.

A bit thin, a bit dry, nothing really interesting on the texture.

Don't get much, apart from the fairly ballsy roasted malt, but then it's not a big Baltic porter flavour and nothing outstanding in Brewdog's oeuvre. (858 characters)

Pours a deep black color and a very weak tan head that immediately settles down to a small lacing. The aroma is slightly roasted along with some fruity smell, later I could also smell some caramel. The taste is bitter with some coffee in the back - there's really not much there, too bad. It's drinkable, although feels slightly stale, but not exactly what I expect from BrewDog. (379 characters)

Very dark brown, with a caramel colored head that disappears quckly but really leaves some lacing behin. Lots of tiny bubbles. Beautiful.

Smell: hops, brown sugar, chocolate, coffee, grapefruit peel.

Taste: bitter at first, with a big undercurrent of slighty burned cookies. Some blackberries, a touch of grass, then some heavier notes, coffee and liquorice. Big citrus (grapefruit). Aftertase is bitter and has that lovely burned note. .

Mouth: medium, nice carbonation. Very very dry, really stays in the front of the mouth.

Overall: hmm, very fresh and hoppy, with is unexpected but actually works well. But you'd have to like hoppy/fruity beers. Very interesting and enjoyable. (689 characters)

Tastes firstly very strong for the abv, with seemingly no attempt to hide the alcohol. Very strong rich fruity aspect as well, like a fortified wine. Bitter burnt malts. Quite a thin mouthfeel too.

Overall not very impressive unfortunately. Interesting take on a porter though, more like a Scottish style dark barleywine, with a stronger taste of alcohol than you would expect from this abv. (670 characters)

A: pours a pitch black hue, coming with a frothy light-tan head with decent retention, while the carbonation level is hard to detect, definitely not too lively.S: the nose is deeply aromatically fruity&hoppy on top of a more settled malty body, interestingly reminiscent of French red Pineau des Charentes (an oak-aged fortified wine blended with Cognac eau-de-vie), sweet&perfumy overripe dark plum flesh, fig preserve, cocoa&vanilla beans (at times it even rings a bell of American toasted white oak chips), sweet brown toast, liquidy black sugar, with lots of hop aroma to boot… A very light tinge of sour dark fruits stays behind, but only just. On balance the nose is really perfumy, full of American or non-traditional hops hence the dominance of potent hop aroma.T: smooth on the palate and surprisingly light-bodied, the foretaste is full of mainly ripe dark stone-fruits and lesser brown-bready malts, going smoothly and never feeling quite explosive or heavy, paving the way for a lovely toast-malty aftertaste to linger, where hints of dark chocolate, sweetened burned espresso, burned walnuts and burned sugar all lend their due share of depth/impact to the balance, with chewy hop bitterness and aromatic black malts lagging behind (50-50). The overripe-plum-like fruitiness provides a very pleasant touch of aroma as well as sourness on the balance, too.M&O: the mouthfeel is… smooth, a bit too smooth that it doesn’t actually taste quite fresh anymore (anyhow the expiry date is just two months away, so…), but the body remains medium and the flavour profile never actually feels heavy, so all in all a balance is luckily retained. This is a very hoppy and fruity porter (particularly on the nose), and I wouldn’t categorise it as a “Baltic Porter” since this is very much a top-fermented dark ale rather than the Baltic countries’ local adoption and adaptation of good old porter. That said, I would definitely love to try it again, if I could come across a fresher batch, that is! (2,146 characters)

Deep black color with 2 fingers of a persistent head with a beige color.Predominant aroma of toasted malts.Flavor reveals more complexity, sweet toasted and smoked malts with hints of caramel and a hoppy resin and fruity taste. Also presence of coffee and plums. Dry and bitter aftertaste.Medium to full body, a bit oily with light carbonation and small bubbles.A hoppy boost porter (though not exaggerated), relatively sweet but not overwhelming and packed with flavors. (475 characters)

Pours a dark brown color with a tan head. Most of the aroma is roasted malt and dark chocolate, though there is a bit of coffee and earthy hop character. A touch of cardboard and a hint of fruit. The flavor is somewhat bland, but there is a decent amount of roasted malt, dark chocolate, and coffee. As with the aroma, some earthy hop notes, though no real bitterness. Nothing offensive, but nothing that makes me really care to drink it. (438 characters)

A: A dark Coca-Cola colered liquid which is almost impenetrable by the light. The thick and uneven sized head is mocha latte colored and leaves a lot of lacings on the glass. All in all a very tempting appearance.

S: Smells of roasted malts, raisins and some hints of coffee. It is also a bit sour and smoky. I can find molasses also. Some alchohol at the end.

T: Tastes roasted malts and chocolate. There is a sourness that is almost like a very faint touch of fruit vinegar. Red fruits, smoked wood and salted ham. The sourness is the dominant taste at the end and it stays quite long.

M: Medium bodied with medium to strong carbonation. It is a bit unbalanced with a "alcohol punch" at the end that I'm not really fond of.

O: It becomes more sour and sour with each sip. At first I liked it but after a few sips I find the sourness to be to dominant. Apart from that thing I think it is a rather good beer. (915 characters)

A - nearly impenetrable but clear deep brown, thumb of mocha head retained reasonably wellS - strong smoky and molasses aromas, dark fruits, touch or earthinessT - sour dark fruit and burnt sugar, smoky malt with a light sour milkiness, finishes with subtle leafy hopsM - medium body with average carbonation, a stickiness through the finish with some chaulkinessO - this brew is a little 'puzzling' as the label suggests, it is bold in flavour but not the most balanced, still worth a try once (498 characters)

A 330ml bottle with a BB of June 2012. Not quite sure how they came up with the name for this one (a hint of Alice in Wonderland)?

Poured into a Delirium chalice. A deep reddish-brown hue that appears black unless held to the light. Produces a massive head of creamy tan foam with good retention; this slowly subsides to a surface layer. Looks superb. A rich aroma of roasted malt with notes of coffee, molasses, burnt grain, dried fruit, stewed hops and yeast. A subtle sweetness with a hint of alcohol in the background. Delicious.

Tastes of roasted malt with a rich, bitter character. Notes of coffee, burnt grain, molasses, dried fruit, liquorice and stewed hops. A hint of nuttiness and yeast, along with considerable bitterness upon swallowing. Mouthfeel is smooth and tingly, with good body. Quite astringent. Aftertaste of bitter roasted malt, coffee and hops.

Very nice, tons of aroma/flavour to feast on. Smooth yet complex. I'm impressed by the character and body relative to the ABV - this stands up to much stronger beers. Lovely - well worth sampling. (1,068 characters)

Testing this beer well chilled, poured from a bottle into a tulip glass.

A: Pouring the beer into glass creates a thick foamy head. The color is black, with a slight redish copper tone to it if you look closely against a light. The foamy head shrinks normally fast but giving the glass a twirl creates a new foamy head immediately.

S: A deep robust smell of roasted malt at first, then comes the chocolate tones, and at last you can also feel a little sour wine-tone coming forward.

T: Contrary the strong smell of roasted malt i would have expected a loaded malt-bomb to go off, but no, the taste is very well balanced with great tones of roasted malt, chocolate. Then comes the hops giving you a little bitter and dry finish that is very pleasant. Almost perfect!

M: The carbonation is put to work here giving you a nice sizzling experience which i like a lot to start with. Then comes the malt together with the hops giving you that dry bitter feeling that stays for a while.

O: A very well balanced porter that got lots of carbonation to start with. Loaded with roasted malts that together with the hops creates a great taste and mouthfeel. What i really like about this porter is that it's not that thick and pretty fresh and easy to drink a couple of! (1,262 characters)

Bottle thanks to Sammy, 12oz into a tulip. Best before 15.03.12 on the neck, March 15, 2012?

Dark brown with some violet/burgundy coming through at the edges. Mocha head of a finger or so, with a touch of sticky lace and ok retention. Nice milk chocolate notes on the nose, a touch of bitterness with some roast. Some dried juicy dark fruits mix in with this as well. Gentle sweetness, some breadiness and a bit of caramel. Thin roasty body, some toasty malts, bakers chocolate and a slight hint of lactic sourness. Doesn't get too bitter, some subtle sweetness tries to pull this back into balance. Mouthfeel is a little too thin for my liking, but the carbonation feels about right at a lower-medium level. Drinkable and fairly tasty, but nothing too exciting - standard really. (781 characters)

Tall thin 330ml bottle, best before 17 June 2012: poured into my 'Westvleteren' chalice on a cold, wet Sunday in March 2012.

The beer liked the glass, really dark body with a tan coloured head suited the chalice nicely: held up to a strong light source the beer showed a lovely deep ruby red hue.

The aroma is all about lightly burnt malts, as is the taste: roasted/toasted coffee/chocolate thoughts come to mind, unsweetened and more powerful in the mouth than the nose. The flavours are almost smooth and rich without being milky or creamy, just right sounds girly, but it is!

Only my 8th Baltic Porter since reviewing on BA, but this is one of the best so far. I'd also like to add I'm not a big fan of the way BrewDog 'do things' sometimes, but credit where credit is due: this beer is good. (798 characters)